Free Republic

Since the revelation that Richard Armitage, a former high-ranking official in the State Department, was the source of the much-ballyhooed Valerie Plame "leak," many in the media have refused to touch the story with a ten-foot pole. This was quite a turnaround since before the Armitage involvement was known, many journalists believed the CIA leak story was one worth pursuing on a daily basis. Some even believed it could bring down the Bush White House, or at least end the careers of Karl Rove and Dick Cheney. One of the biggest media figures boycotting the Plame story has been MSNBC...

This does get a little complicated. First, a holdover, liberal CIA employee, Valerie Plame, decided to undermine President Bush’s policies by pulling strings to get her like-minded husband, Joseph Wilson, sent to Niger to discredit the report from British intelligence that Saddam Hussein tried to purchase yellowcake for nuclear weapons development. (This British report was mentioned by Pres. Bush as one piece of intelligence we relied on in concluding that there was a significant risk of WMD in Iraq. The report turned out to be factual.)

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage has resigned as expected a day after his boss and close friend, Colin Powell, announced he was stepping down, a State Department official said on Tuesday. Armitage, a barrel-chested former Navy officer who closely managed the day-to-day operations of the State Department's worldwide bureaucracy, tendered his resignation to Powell on Monday, the official said. "He came in with the secretary and is leaving with him," said the official, who asked not to be identified. Armitage was respected among diplomats and lawmakers for his candor. He was always expected to leave at the same...

Plamegate: Patrick Fitzgerald's three-year manhunt to track down who blew Valerie Plame's CIA "cover" has been exposed as a costly sham. He apparently knew all along that his man was not Scooter Libby. ...But it's hard to see anything but politics as the motivation for Fitzgerald's handling of the Plame affair. The facts indicate that Fitzgerald knew early on that the original leaker was State Department official Richard Armitage. So why did Fitzgerald let a cloud hang over White House adviser Karl Rove's head for so long? And why is Fitzgerald continuing to hound Libby, the former vice presidential chief...

With the REVELATION by Newsweek's Michael Isikoff that the REAL source of the leak of Valerie Plame's name to Robert Novak was NOT Karl Rove but frequent critic of the Administration's Iraq policy, Richard Armitage, both DUmmieland and the KOmmieland are in a deep state of shock. Therefore, in order to ease their angst, perhaps this is a good time to take a brief break and serenade them with the Freudenschade song (to the tune of "Edelweiss) composed by that famous Tin Pan Alley songmeister, Charles Hendrickson: Freudenschade, Freudenschade, DUmmie joy bears repeating; Pop champagne, feel no pain-- Only...

If John Kerry becomes President he will find himself on the horns of a dilemma - which close friend to ditch when he chooses a new Secretary of State. According to today's Washington Post, Kerry would pick his national security team within a few weeks after winning the White House and two of his closest friends, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) or Richard Holbrooke reportedly want the job of running the State Department.

BARRY SCHWEID AP Diplomatic Writer WASHINGTON (AP) -- Baring one of Washington's worst-kept secret, Secretary of State Colin Powell's deputy said he and Powell sometimes went public with their dissenting views to try to influence Bush administration policy. Richard Armitage, who leaves along with Powell at the end of President Bush's first term, described the process as using the "bully pulpit.'' "Differences of opinion are something you as a citizen and I as a citizen should value in your government,'' Armitage said in an interview with National Public Radio's "Morning Edition'' on Thursday. "You really want it.'' Powell and Armitage,...

ONE of the reasons so many people admire Richard Armitage, the outgoing Deputy Secretary of State, is his well-earned reputation for fierce honesty. He is George Orwell-like in his ability to face hard facts straight up, and deal with them. Although he always manages to do this with a smile, he'll tell you the things you don't like to hear as well as the things you do. With his best friend and boss Colin Powell, Armitage, according to Bob Woodward's account of the period leading up to the war in Iraq, was the member of the Bush administration who urged...

NEW YORK, March 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Though by most accounts secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld are friendly, the 72-year-old Defense chief may not be taking his partially eclipsed status very well. Though he has given no sign he might depart early, rumors have flown for weeks that Rumsfeld could leave after the quadrennial defense review expected by the end of 2005, report Senior Editor Michael Hirsh and Washington Bureau Chief Daniel Klaidman in the March 14 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, March 7). Among those said to be eying Rumsfeld's post is newly retired...

WASH POST's Ben Bradlee Claims Plame Leaker Was Richard Armitage Mon Mar 13 2006 10:48:34 ET THE WASHINGTON POST's famous Watergate editor Ben Bradlee claims that it was former State Department Deputy Secretary Richard Armitage who was the individual who leaked the identity of CIA official Valerie Plame. In the latest issue of VANITY FAIR: "Woodward was in a tricky position. People close to him believe that he had learned about Plame from his friend Richard Armitage, Colin Powell's former deputy, who has been known to be critical of the administration and who has a blunt way of speaking. 'That...

THE STATE DEPARTMENT PLOT THICKENS [John Podhoretz] Time Magazine has a new story about the revelation of Valerie Plame's name -- a story that, despite Time's own bizarre spin, reinforces the claim that Karl Rove and others learned that Joseph Wilson was married to a CIA operative from the media. "As the investigation tightens into the leak of the identity of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame, sources tell TIME some White House officials may have learned she was married to former ambassador Joseph Wilson weeks before his July 6, 2003, Op-Ed piece criticizing the Administration," writes Massimo Calabresi. Later, he...

WASHINGTON - It was a spring-like Monday morning here as Afghan leader Hamid Karzai watched a hastily sewn flag rise over the long-abandoned Afghan embassy. Much like Mr. Karzai's desperate nation, the dilapidated embassy is a testimony to neglect, with peeling paint, leaky roofs, sagging walls, and termites. Still, no one seemed to notice. Speaking of shared US-Afghan pain, partnership, and hope, Karzai dignified the moment. He seemed sincere, yet polished - even, some would say, chic. "Tie it well, Haron," said Karzai, looking on in a silver lamb's-wool cap, flowing tunic, and emerald cape as his chargé d'affairs ...

More signs of Syria turn up in Iraq The Iraqi ambassador to Syria tells the Monitor that photos of high-ranking Syrian officials were found in Fallujah. By Nicholas Blanford | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor DAMASCUS, SYRIA - When US troops stormed the rebel-held city of Fallujah last month, they uncovered photos of senior Syrian officials that have further strained the already tense relations between Syria and Iraq, according to the Iraqi ambassador to Syria.Several captured insurgents were found in possession of the photographs, confirmation, according to Iraqi officials, that some elements in the Syrian regime - perhaps...

Sep. 11, 2004 9:56 | Updated Sep. 11, 2004 23:03 Armitage: Syria responsible for regional terror By JANINE ZACHARIA AND AP WASHINGTON Syria bears some responsibility for the twin suicide bombings in Beersheba on August 31, US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said on Friday, although he stopped short of endorsing an Israeli retaliatory attack on Damascus. Asked in an interview with Egypt TV if Syria "should be held accountable" for the Beersheba bombings, which killed 16 and wounded dozens, Armitage said, "Why not? Syria holds and houses Hamas. Syria is a conduit of weapons from Iran to Hizbullah....

In a just-completed interview with Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, the Katie Couric on display was a far cry from the bitter, clenched-jawed woman of yesterday. Couric's interview of Gen. Ricardo Sanchez yesterday was a festival of attempts to downplay the significance of Saddam's capture and to highlight perceived shortcomings in US policy and accomplishments. No one would confuse the Couric of today with a cheerleader for US policy. But while she turned no handstands on behalf of Pres. Bush, neither did she second-guess or undermine in the same way she attempted yesterday. It could be that Katie was...

Bush administration examining ways to change course in IraqBy Warren P. Strobel and John WalcottKnight Ridder Newspapers CHUCK KENNEDY, KRT U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in January 2003. WASHINGTON - Alarmed by mounting casualties and staggering costs in Iraq, a growing number of top Bush administration officials have concluded that the current U.S. strategy is unsustainable and are looking for ways to increase United Nations involvement, American officials and foreign diplomats said. The sharp course corrections under consideration, they said, include creating a multinational U.N. peacekeeping force with continued U.S. military...

US official says Iraqi scientists helping on arms By Carol Giacomo WASHINGTON, April 30 (Reuters) - Captured Iraqi scientists have started cooperating with the United States, giving U.S. officials renewed confidence that there are unconventional weapons in Iraq and they will be found, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said on Wednesday. "The people we have found are already leading us to other people as well as to computer files and to documents," he told the National Defense University, an elite school for America's military officers. "With these sources of information, we can say with a high degree of confidence...

Armitaj: we will not attack Syria.. But our relations are difficult Syria-USA, Politics, 4/9/2003 US Department of State official, Richard Armitaj, yesterday expressed his hope that Damascus would have stopped sending supplies and fighters to Iraq and blocked its borders before any non -humanitarian supplies. He repeated his saying that the USA does not intent to attack Syria despite the many sources of "concerns from it." Armitaj was referring to the recent American accusations and criticism to Syria accusing it of providing Iraq of equipment of military and civilian use including night vision goggles as well as permitting Arab fighters...

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- A bill in the Virginia legislature that promotes the flag of the former South Vietnam died in a subcommittee after federal officials warned lawmakers it could damage relations between the United States and Vietnam. Sen. Malfourd Trumbo said Monday that the bill will not face a vote before Monday's midnight deadline for action. The measure sparked concern among officials in Vietnam and the State Department after it passed the House of Delegates last month. State Department officials urged several legislators to kill the bill. In a Feb. 5 letter addressed to bill sponsor Del. Robert Hull,...

U.S.: Nine nations pledge troops Iraq has 'weeks and not months' to disarm, White House says 01/31/2003 By RICHARD WHITTLE / The Dallas Morning News WASHINGTON - Nine nations will commit troops, and nearly two dozen will let U.S. forces use their territory and airspace for a war with Iraq, a top State Department official said Thursday. "I do not desire to announce the names publicly," Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He said 21 countries have pledged to give U.S. forces "access en route" to Iraq, up to 23 will allow basing...